These blogs discuss the key concepts behind Obama’s contribution to the third American political tradition during his 2008 and 2012 campaigns and his first presidential term. The blogs showcase these ideas in Obama’s second term, since my book covers only the first Obama administration.

The blogs illustrate Obama’s ideology, which is universally anti-universal and embraces earned egalitarianism and equality on the basis of difference, not sameness, and my interpretation of his rainbow cosmopolitanism. Obama also rejects the classical liberal split between the private and the public spheres, opting for an all-encompassing social sphere.

The blogs cover specific issues that underscore Obama’s perspective about identity politics or civil rights, including the GOP’s 2012 War on Women; neotribalism; what role religion plays, given Obama’s worldview about Hell on Earth; and his battle against the Roberts Court, particularly regarding race, gender, and religion.

The blogs explain how Obama has manifested the third American political tradition in his governance style in both domestic and foreign policy. This includes Obama’s modus operandi and his penchant for executive action, given party polarization and congressional obstruction and delay. In particular, the blogs about the implementation of Obamacareand the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act also highlight how Obama used what Out of Many, One calls “federalism for public purpose.” This structure created a type of diagonal and horizontal federalist scaffold or structure that still could instill citizen action in what I refer to as domestic non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Finally, the blogs illustrates how Obama governed, cementing a rainbow cosmopolitan cultural coalition despite the best efforts of Obama haters (including birthers and Tea Partiers), and the role that racial scripting played in Obama’s leadership. (Racial scripting is a sophisticated 21st-century form of racism and racial consciousness, often stripped of overt or malicious racial intent.)